ApconiX Welcomes Dr James McDonagh

We are delighted to welcome James McDonagh who joins the Safety Science Group (SSG) as a as Principal Applied AI Scientist.

James studied Chemistry as an undergraduate at Bangor University, in North Wales. He then continued with a PhD in Computational Chemistry and Chemical Informatics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His PhD thesis focused on predicting solubility of small druglike molecules, combining quantum chemistry and machine learning.

His role within the SSG will be to build novel internal AI capabilities and guide adoption of computational tools to assist in toxicity assessments. James will also introduce research capabilities in AI/ML and molecular modelling, focusing on aspects such chemical toxicology and off-target predictions.

Nicholas James Coltman, PhD, Deputy Head of Safety Science, commented “Welcoming James into the SSG aligns with ApconiX’s mission of championing the importance of data science and modelling in toxicology, to help our clients in developing safer medicines for patients. It’s great to bring James as a very senior member, into the fold, to further develop our capabilities and client offering, and to provide mentorship and training to our other data science team members. Aside from his experience in computational modelling and machine learning, James brings excellent craic and humour to the SSG and with yet another musician and performer in the group, we are poised to spin-out a series of gang shows – watch this space!!”